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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Please find below a collation of statistics referred
to in the main article in this series, including tables on the number of
foreigners playing in Iceland, the number of Icelandic footballers playing
abroad, and a brief overview of the KSÍ budget (end of year figures) from
2008-2012 inclusive.

There is a discrepancy in numbers between the above
set of figures, which presumably includes the total number of foreigners
playing in Icelandic football in men’s and women’s senior competitions in all
divisions, and the one below, which deals with the number of players in
Icelandic men’s football’s top four divisions from 2010-12 inclusive. There
were no figures available for the 4. deild karla (fifth-level, regional,
division), and there are, as yet, no overall figures available for 2013.

2010

2011

2012

URVALDEILD

48

44

34

1. DEILD KARLA

41

37

30

2. DEILD KARLA

28

14

21

3. DEILD KARLA

70

79

46

4. DEILD KARLA

N/A

N/A

N/A

According to the website transfermarkt.is, some ten
Icelandic footballers have a current market value of more than 1 million Euros;
please find below a list of the fifteen most valuable Icelandic players, which
was reproduced on the News of Iceland website on 2/4/13:

Gylfi Þór Sigurðsson, Tottenham - €8
million

Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Ajax- €4
million

Alfreð Finnbogason, Heerenveen
- €3 million

Aron Einar Gunnarsson, Cardiff-
€2 million

Emil Hallfreðsson, Hellas
Verona - €2 million

Grétar Rafn Steinsson, Kayserispor
- €1.7 million

Aron
Jóhannsson, AZ
Alkmaar -
€1.6 million

Sölvi Geir Ottesen, FCK -
€1.5 million

Ragnar Sigurðsson, FCK -
€1.5 million

Jóhann
Guðmundsson, AZ
Alkmaar -
€1.5 million

Rúrik Gíslason, FCK -
€1000000

Birkir Bjarnason, Pescara-
€900000

Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen, Club
Brugge - €750000

Eggert Gunnþór Jónsson, Wolves
- €750000

Kári Árnason,RotherhamUnited - €750000

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AUTHOR'S NOTE: Once again, thanks are due to the KSÍ's
Ómar Smáráson for his assistance in providing much of what was written above.
The KSÍ's budgetary information is available in full via their website (www.ksi.is).
The list of the 15 most valuable Icelandic footballers was, as mentioned,
originally published on www.transfermarkt.is; here is the link to the News Of
Iceland article on same:http://www.newsoficeland.com/home/sports/football/item/1001-10-icelandic-football-players-are-worth-more-than-a-million-eurosSincere and grateful thanks once again to all who contributed to this
series of articles; due to the vagaries of the all-new Blogspot system, apologies,
too, for the less than perfect layout. Asever, any errors and/or omissions will gladly be corrected if notification of same is sent (via Twitter or Pat's Football Blog's Facebook page).

During the course of researching this series, Pat's
Football Blog put forward several questions to the Icelandic government to
ascertain their thoughts on the financial situation in Icelandic football, and also in Icelandic sport and society in general; many
of which were kindly answered by Óskar Þór Ármannsson, adviser to the
Department of Culture in the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (henceforth referred to here as the MESC), in
January and March of this year.PFB: First of all, I would
like to know how the current government views the current financial situation
in Iceland,
not only in general, but also in a sporting sense and, more to the point, in
the local football scene.ÓÞÁ:The financial situation
in Iceland
is still sensitive but is moving in the right direction. The debts are still
severe but the state Budget has a minimal deficit in 2013 compared with 2009. The
sports also had to put up with some budget cuts from the state’s support. The
effects of the crisis on local football are mainly through lower contributions
from sponsors. In many cases, not only in football, the clubs lost a big part
of their sponsors during the years between 2008-2012. The situation is getting better
but it is still difficult.PFB:Which sectors of Icelandic society have, in your opinion, been the
worst-hit by the credit-crisis?ÓÞÁ:It
is difficult to compare how the crisis hit different sectors and it is also
different as to how much sectors had to cut down their budgets..[The health-care system in Iceland has suffered because of budget-cuts.]..There are discussions about how severely this has affected
the healthcare system. The municipalities are having difficulities now and they
are cutting their budgets in general. That affects the schoolsystem but the
Municipalities drive the elementary schools and the kindergartens.PFB:How badly affected has sport been in comparison?ÓÞÁ: The sport sector has
been cut much more percentage-wise than all other sectors but seems to be able to
adjust better than many other sectors. Other sectors covered in the state budget
receive an inflation upgrade while the sport sector doesn't. This means in comparison that
the sport sector had to deal with about 30% more budget-cuts than other sectors.
The sport sector also had to deal with severely decreasing support from both
companies and households at the same time that the financing of international
competition costs increased up to 50% because of the fall of the Icelandic
Currency (Króna/ÍSK).PFB: Does the Icelandic
government usually assist football in any way, financially or otherwise? Has
the current government done so since it took office, or has it offered any tax
incentives (for example) to clubs?ÓÞÁ:The only direct support
from the state to football is through contracts with the National Olympic and
Sports Association.

PFB: What is the MESC's attitude towards sport in comparison to the
other sectors under its administration, namely education and culture? ÓÞÁ: The sports are in
comparison to other sectors different from the administration point of view. The
sport sector is organised from through non-governmental organisations, namely
the National Olympic and Sports Association, and the federations for individual
sports and finally district federations. The state co-operates with the sports
sector on that basis. The Ministry has more direct responsibility towards the
education sector and some other parts of the cultural sector. A general
legislation on sports is in place as the basis for this cooperation of the
state and the non-governmental organisations. PFB: How did successive
Icelandic governments help fund sport in Iceland before the credit-crisis?ÓÞÁ:With support to the
National Olympic and Sports Association and its Federations and related
projects. That has not changed as a result of the crisis, but there have been
budget-cuts for this support from 2008-2012. In the budget 2013 there is again a
slight increase of the budget to the sports sector.PFB: Do you have any figures
for government expenditure with regard to sport (funding the Icelandic National
Olympic and Sports Association) for the period between, say, 2007 and 2013 - to
act as a comparison between before, during and after the worst of the
credit-crisis - which you can make public?ÓÞÁ: The [state's finances] are
public so everyone can see who are getting funds from the State budget. In this
table [see below], funding to anti-doping work and to other sport
organisations are not included.Contributions from the Icelandic State
Budget towards sport in Iceland (totals in millions of ÍSK)

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Icelandic National Olympic and Sports
Association

122.5

162.9

177.9

160.5

159.1

156.1

173.7

Sports
Clubs Travel Fund

30

59

60

57

54.1

64.7

70

Elite
Sports Fund

30

30

30

25.5

24.7

34.7

55

PFB: Was the Icelandic
government at the time of the credit-crisis able to fund sport after the
crisis, and if so, did football receive any financial assistance?ÓÞÁ: The government has
funded the sports before and during the crisis in the same way as before, but
had to cut the support considerably. Football receives support from the State
budget like other individual sports through the government’s contracts with the
National Olympic and Sports Association. PFB: How many clubs in Iceland were
affected by the credit-crisis at the time and since? I understand that there
were some sort of "confidentiality agreements" in force between some
clubs and their sponsors. What does this mean - that clubs are not allowed to
mention (to anybody other than the tax authorities and, I would think, the KSÍ)
who their sponsors were/are or how much they actually received in
sponsorship-money? ÓÞÁ: The Ministry has not
such information.PFB: Which sports were the
worst-affected in Iceland
after the credit-crisis?ÓÞÁ:Sport in general was
affected. As stated previously, the State had to cut its support. The same also
applies to the support that companies and businesses provided to sport, this
decreased considerably – almost crashed – so the sports which relied the most
on support from sponsors, such as football clubs, were most severely affected.PFB: Which sports were less badly affected?ÓÞÁ:The Federation for Disabled Athletes gets special funds
from the State Budget and also the Icelandic Glima Federation which presents
Icelandic Wrestling (old traditional sport in Iceland).PFB: Does the KSÍ receive (and
has it ever received) any financial help from the Icelandic government?ÓÞÁ:Yes, as stated before,
KSÍ has received such financial help through the government’s contracts with
the National Olympic and Sports Association, which distributes the funds to the
sports federations. In the case of KSÍ, this support is only a small part of
their total annual budget while it secures the basis for the work of some of
the other sport federations. KSÍ also receives support from the National
Olympic and Sports Association's Elite Sports Fund, which is also funded by the State.PFB: Finally, how does the government see the future of sport -
especially football - in Iceland?ÓÞÁ:The
state is working on better funding in the sports sector in general. A new
national policy for sports has been adopted by the government and the Ministry
is working on its progress. This will also affect football.PFB: To finish, could you tell
me a little more about this new "national policy for sports?" and how
it will affect football? ÓÞÁ:If we will be able to strengthen the support to the Federations and the
Sports Clubs Travel Fund and the Elite Sports Fund as stated in the Policy, then
football will also benefit from that. Football is, on the other hand, much
better funded, with the support from UEFA and FIFA, [than] other sports. So, state support does not count as much [for football] as for other sports, but
it will have some effect financially. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------AUTHOR'S NOTE: Many sincere and grateful thanks to Óskar Þór Ármannsson for
taking the time to answer the questions put to him. A previous attempt to
contact the MESC was made last year, which came to naught; thanks also to
Eyjólfur Eyfells, a former intern at the Icelandic Embassy in London, for his attempts to provide assistance.Next up, in the fourth and final part of this series, is a brief statistical overview.Link to Part 1: http://patmcguinness.blogspot.nl/2013/04/icelandic-football-and-credit-crunch.htmlLink to Part 2: http://patmcguinness.blogspot.nl/2013/04/icelandic-football-and-credit-crunch_9851.htmlLink to Part 4: http://patmcguinness.blogspot.nl/2013/04/icelandic-football-and-credit-crunch_1163.html

About Me

I am an Irishman in exile; a dedicated follower of football (above all, of Liverpool and Newry City), a fan of the round ball but not neccessarily all that goes with it.
My intention was just to use this blog for writing practice, and write about those people and places on the football (soccer) front that seem to go unnoticed. If, by some chance (or misfortune), you find something written here worth using/writing about, PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE AND SEND COPY. Ideas, compliments, complaints and contributions are more than welcome. In any case, hope you enjoy it.
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